Born in the 60s, I was always a Marvel girl. Although Mom and Dad would occasionally bring home Superman or (more rarely) Batman, I always preferred the Marvel books (with occasional deviation--I always did like DC's Legion of Superheroes, in all its incarnations, until recently, but that's probably another post). My earliest favorite was Fantastic Four. By the time I hit middle school, Ben and company had been bumped by the Avengers; I think the Celestial Madonna saga was in progress when I started to buy the title regularly. The Avengers was also my first foray into buying back issues, when I asked for an outrageously expensive birthday present in a near-mint Avengers 4. (It was $20.00.) I picked up the X-Men when the "new" team was introduced. ("New" being Storm and Colossus and Nightcrawler and Wolverine and so forth.)
Unlike most kids (or, at least, most girls) I kept with the hobby through high school, but eventually stopped during college. Why? Less money, no place to keep the books, beer and dancing and even studying taking their place...
When I got out of school (late 80s), I picked it up again for a few years, but eventually stopped. The price had gone up, sure, and the art was often distracting (I don't mind the super-muscles, or the extra-long legs, or even the giant flotation-device breasts, but a resemblance to human anatomy is nice), but the real kiss of death was the crossovers! Months of buying books you didn't care about, months of no interesting activity in the books you did care about. Turned me off of the X-books for good, let me tell you!
So, years later, the new century. I'm married with two young daughters. I start to pick up an occasional comic at the bookstore (no, not a comic book store, those we don't have here, a regular newsstand/bookstore). And you know, they were better than they'd been ten years earlier. The art has improved considerably, to the point where I really notice when it's really bad (and I'm no expert) because the really bad is fairly rare. So I am back. Yeah, there's a nostalgia side to this. Avengers, check. Fantastic Four, check. And a new Ms. Marvel book? I've still got my complete run of the original! But I'm also really enjoying the Young Avengers. And She-Hulk. And the new Captain America book? When was the last time that Captain America was even readable, much less good? (Last time I read it regularly he was still dating Bernie, IIRC.) But now it's one of the books I most look forward to every month (yes, I get my comics monthly, with age comes patience, I suppose).
As for my kids, well, my older daughter likes DC. Teen Titans and JLA. (The younger one likes Scooby-Doo.) That and New X-Men. Well, she doesn't have to ask for most of the Marvel books because Mom is already getting them, so perhaps her own choices aren't a good gauge of her preferences.
Another cool thing I wish they'd had when I was a kid? The action figures! The Marvel Legends figures are so incredibly cool. A lot of variation in quality (read: playability), though. Hm, I see a future post there...
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